BENJAMIN today...

I'm amazed at how as we endure some of the hardest trials, there always seems to be blessings that come. As stressful as it is to: be away from my husband and children, see my child suffer, be helpless in my situation, etc...there are always small little miracles that bubble to the surface, ones that I would never have experienced had I not been here at Primary Children's Hospital in SLC, Utah. For that I will always be grateful.

(thank you April, Erin, Lacey and Julie)

FRIDAY...

Ben had such a great morning. He slept through the night so peacefully and restfully. After a quick morning of suctioning, he fell back to sleep for a long time. This afternoon Ben became really copious with his secretions and had both the nurse and tech hopping. His oxygen need increased up to 50%, he became febrile, needed to be bagged quite a few times and finally after about 4 hours has finally calmed down a bit. They took an x-ray which shows some collapsed airways. We're hoping with aggressive bagging and suctioning, we'll be able to open them up. They took some more blood to check his blood gas levels but so far they are good. His heart rate continues to be really high - hanging at 150 beats a minute. I'm hoping that as the evening goes on, he'll be able to settle down even more. His g-tube feeds were started today and then stopped after he got worse. He had a lot of residual in his stomach which means that his little body wasn't digesting the milk very well. This is probably due to the fact that he is still not feeling well. They switched him over to his NJ tube instead. Still no date to leave as of yet - especially with all the excitement that he caused today. Thanks for your love and support, we have felt SO blessed knowing that so many people are pulling for us to get back to NH!

Enjoying the journey

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

THE PURPOSE OF TEMPLES

If you have a minute, please watch this video.

LINK

SHARING IS CARING

Benjamin has a new best friend.

His name is Caleb.

He is a great sharer.

When Ben's lips turned blue

at their playdate,

Caleb let Ben use some of his oxygen.

Now that's a TRUE friend.

We are grateful to Caleb

(and his sweet mommy)

for helping us through

our little emergency.

There aren't many 'friends'

that can accomodate Ben

like Caleb could.
These boys are kindred spirits,

two peas in a pod.

Thank you dear Caleb...
for sharing your "O's"!
(and your nebulizer, and your chair, and your blankets, and your mommy, and your home, and most of all YOU!)

CHANGE OF PLANS...

Today was our departure date.

We were scheduled to head back to NH.

Instead we are at Primary Children's Hospital in SLC.

Ben has pneumonia.

We'll be here for a couple of days.

I'll be updating Ben's blog tomorrow.

(click his picture on my sidebar for his site)

It looks like this might be a quick stay...

Hopefully we'll be heading home soon.

As most of you know,

Life is NEVER dull with Ben. :)

I'll be in touch!

COUGARS TAKE THE CONFERENCE TITLE

Ben, Ben and I got to go to the last BYU home basketball game of the season last night. It was a GREAT time. The game was painful at times, I don't think BYU played very well...but they played well enough to pull off the win. This is the third year in a row that they have taken the conference title. We owe a BIG thankyou to Dallan and April. It was a great treat to take my little Ben to experience the BYU fan atmosphere - very LOUD and EXCITING! :)

Little Ben watching the exciting game.

Me and my cute twin.

Ben not interested in watching the BYU cheerleaders during a time-out.

Ben and Ben.

SEE? See that look on my Ben's face?
He was EXCITED to be there!!! :)

Post game celebration.

More post game celebrating.

We really had a fun night out. Thank you again Dallan and April. We appreciate your kindness.

WE'RE HERE!

(Ben and I on the plane)

It was a long day of FLYING...

but we made it.

VACATION FOR TWO

Ben and I are leaving for Utah tomorrow.

All by ourselves!!!

We are EXCITED!

(well...not for the flying part)

We'll be staying with THIS family.

My twin, his beautiful wife and cute kids.

We have LOTS of people to see

and not a lot of time to see them.

The first night we are spending it with

Steve's parents and sister in Logan, UT,

along with Steve's niece Madalyn.

We'll be stopping in to see and visit
THIS amazing family for a couple days,

and one of the nights I'll be having dinner with

my old seminary teacher and his beautiful wife.

I haven't seen them in over 15 years.

One of the days we'll make time to see
my good friend Monique who moved from NH
last year. Her husband was my bishop.

Of course a visit to Utah wouldn't be complete
without seeing my sister Tina! :)

Before heading back Ben will be taking us
to see the Draper Temple Open House.

I'll make sure to post lots of pictures of our adventure.

CURLY OR STRAIGHT?

That is the question...
Kayla would like your opinion.